


girlfriends and ghoulfriends

by croissantkatie



Category: Buzzfeed Unsolved (Web Series), Ruining History (Web Series)
Genre: Friends to Lovers, I did my best to resist making too many historical references, Multi, Polyamory, Polyamory Negotiations, Threesome - F/M/M, attempted wooing, the wooing is eventually sucessful
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-14
Updated: 2018-08-14
Packaged: 2019-06-27 11:43:25
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,757
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15684753
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/croissantkatie/pseuds/croissantkatie
Summary: Whatexactlyis the difference between a girlfriend and a ghoulfriend?(In the end, it turns out, not much.)





	girlfriends and ghoulfriends

**Author's Note:**

  * For [angelsaves](https://archiveofourown.org/users/angelsaves/gifts).



> With thanks to [formerlydf](https://archiveofourown.org/users/formerlydf/profile) and [ibangmyowndrum](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ibangmyowndrum/profile) for plotting help, cheerleading and alpha reading. Without them this would be two scenes of dialogue with no explanation as to what happened in between them.
> 
> Thanks to [formerlydf](https://archiveofourown.org/users/formerlydf/profile), [ibangmyowndrum](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ibangmyowndrum/profile) and [growlery](https://archiveofourown.org/users/growlery/profile), who all ended up providing beta services. They truly did an amazing job making this understandable to people other than myself. All remaining mistakes are my own.
> 
> All historical details are correct. The rest is completely fictional.

Ryan pulls up outside Shane and Sara’s apartment block, putting the car into park. “Tonight was fun,” he says as he turns to look at Shane, sitting in the passenger seat.

“It really was,” pipes up Sara from the back. Ryan twists his body further so he can smile widely at her as well. “See you Monday at the office?” she asks as she begins to gather her bag and jacket together.

“You can count on it,” he replies with a grin. His teeth look almost like they are glowing in the light from the street lamps outside. Sara and Shane get out of the car, but Shane holds the passenger door open a moment longer, grinning down at Ryan.

“Catch you later ghoulfriend!” he says cheerily, before shutting the door on Ryan’s honking laughter.

Sara waves to Ryan as he pulls back out into the road, digging in her handbag with the other hand trying to find her keys. They had apparently fallen to the bottom of her bag and managed to settle underneath absolutely everything else in her purse. She purses her lips, gives up trying to find them just by touch, and looks down at her open bag. She eventually manages to disentangle them from her headphones and pulls them out, holding them up in front of her in victory.

Shane grins at her as she unlocked the main door, pushing it open and holding it for her as she goes inside. They take the stairs together by silent agreement. It wasn’t that many floors and the elevator had been smelling even more suspicious than normal recently. Once they are inside their apartment, Shane makes a beeline for the couch, lying down on it so that he’s taking up nearly the whole thing. Sara heads to the kitchen, grabs herself a glass of water, before moving to join him.

“Shane,” Sara says as she flops heavily on to their couch. “I have a question.”

“Shoot,” he replies, not looking up from his phone.

“What _exactly_ is the difference between a girlfriend and a ghoulfriend?”

“Well, etymologically speaking,” Shane begins, “they’re very similar, derived by compounding two words. In this case, both with friend. The difference between girl and ghoul on the other hand…”

“Shane.”

Shane opens his mouth to respond glibly but shuts up when Sara, somehow, manages to raise her eyebrows even higher. He puts his phone down on the arm of the couch, before twisting his body to look more directly at Sara. “I honestly don’t know what you’re getting at babe.”

“Really?”

“Really really.”

“Ah” Sara says. This was going to be more difficult than she has expected. She had been working under the assumption that Shane at least knew what he had been doing, and just hadn’t figured out how to mention it to her yet. Sara had been waiting for him to bring it up for several weeks now and it kept not happening. She had eventually decided to give him a gentle prod in the right direction. It looks like it’s going to take more than a gentle nudge though. She needs a new game plan. She rearranges her limbs so she iss sat cross legged on the couch, facing Shane. She takes a steadying breath, and decides to plow onwards.

“When you posted that instagram, that was a work thing. It was Unsolved stuff. But afterwards wasn’t.” Shane looks at her blankly. “We went out for dinner, the three of us. We all shared a bottle of wine. And most importantly, the wine wasn’t the cheapest they had. It wasn’t even the second cheapest. Do you know when we last did that?” Shane shakes his head gently, still confused. “When the two of us went out for my birthday, just us.”

Shane tilts his head to the side. “I know there’s something you’re getting at here, but I really have no idea what.”

Sara has to fight hard to keep a neutral expression and not let her frustration show on her face. She had genuinely thought her boyfriend wasn’t this dense. “Ok. And then all three of us went out to dinner the next week. And then the week after we got burgers and went to a movie together. We all shared one giant thing of popcorn.”

“Well, obviously. You went to the cinema with two kernelheads, of course we were gonna get the largest thing of popcorn possible.”

This time Sara can’t help a small sigh escaping her lips. “What I’m getting at Shane,” she says, “is that the last four times we’ve been out just the three of us, have all looked suspiciously like what the two of us do when we deliberately go out on dates, rather than just hanging out together at home.”

Shane’s face goes carefully, deliberately, blank. “Sara,” he says.

“It’s cool, I don’t mind,” she reassures him. “I just think we should talk about it, you oblivious fool.”

“I am not oblivious!”

“Well not normally,” retorted Sara, “you just have a huge Ryan shaped gap which stops you from thinking properly.”

“Hey, it’s not that big!” Shane protests. Sara doesn’t reply, just continues to stare at him. “Because he’s short, get it?” he adds, mildly frantic.

“Yeah, I got it,” she says with a slight smile. “So you admit you have a Ryan shaped gap?”

“Ok, maybe,” he replies reluctantly. “But it’s really not that a big a gap! It’s just, y’know, a small thing.”

“Uhuh,” Sara says, trying to sound encouraging and not at all dubious. She waits another minute before saying anything more, watching Shane’s face as his brain begins to catch up with the words that have been spilling out of his mouth.

“Fuck, I have a Ryan thing,” he says, eyes wide.

“No shit, Sherlock,” Sara replies, smiling.

“Fuck you Sara!” Shane exclaims. “Wait, no I didn’t mean that, I shouldn’t have said that,” he adds, voice apologetic. “I’m just having a huge revelation right now.”

“Well, not that huge.”

“Sara!” Shane says, voice filled with glee. “Was that a short joke? In the middle of my emotional breakthrough?” He presses his hand to his chest, mock delicately, and adopts an expression of faux outrage. “How could you - at a time like this, honestly!” She tilts her head to the side and smirks in response.

“At least we’re finally on the same page,” she comments.

“So, I’m guessing we shouldn’t go on anymore date-like activities with Ryan then?” Shane asks, voice small. Sara sighs again. Apparently they aren’t exactly on the same page yet. Sara raises her eyebrows and looks flatly at Shane. He stops talking.

“Not what I’m saying, babe, and you know it.”

“What exactly are you trying to say, Sara?” he asks, voice quieter than normal.

“I’m saying you should talk to Ryan. Possibly you _and_ me should talk to him, but you absolutely _need_ to. But first, we should probably have a good, long chat just between the two of us.”

Shane sighs. “You’re right,” he admits quietly. “But can that wait til tomorrow? I think I need to process this a bit more before trying to y’know, put things into words.”

“Of course,” she replies, voice soft, as she places a gentle hand on his bare ankle. “Wanna get in some quality cuddling time now?”

“Yeah, please,” Shane says, a relieved smile on his face. Sara grins impishly at him, crawling up the sofa to squeeze herself between Shane and the back of the sofa. Or more accurately, half on top of him. He makes a small grunt of pain when her elbow accidentally catches him in the stomach. She pecks his cheek in apology and wraps her arms around him.

“Shush, cuddle and processing time now,” she says, tucking her head against his chest.

***

“Lunch?” asks Sara brightly, appearing beside Shane and Ryan’s desks. Shane clearly hadn’t noticed her coming up behind them, headphones on, and flails wildly in his chair when she puts a hand on his shoulder, limbs everywhere. Ryan bursts out laughing at the sight, and Shane hams it up some more, nearly falling out of his chair.

“Sure,” agrees Ryan, “we just need the big guy to get his body under control and then we can head off.” At this Shane takes on a mock offended look and stands up. He is perfectly capable of controlling his own limbs, thank you very much.

With an air of great dignity, he holds out a hand to Ryan, cocks an eyebrow, and says “shall we, Mr Bergara?” Ryan rolls his eyes, stands up, and, completely ignoring Shane, slings his arm around Sara’s shoulders, before starting to walk away in the direction of the kitchen. Shane’s shoulders slump a little, before following after the pair of them.

After grabbing some food from the fridge, Sara grabs some seats for the three of them whilst Shane and Ryan refill their coffee mugs from the pot. Shane places two mugs on the table, nudging one of them to rest in front of Sara. She smiles at him over her sandwich, nodding her thanks. The conversation flows easily, but Shane keeps zoning out, staring at Ryan, and Sara has to pick up the conversational slack. She tries not to shoot too many concerned glances at Shane, but she’s not entirely sure she succeeds. At some point Ryan is going to notice.

As if on cue, Ryan asks “dude, what are you doing? Are you bringing your stupid dissociating bit from Post Mortem into real life now?”

“What?” asks Shane, still looking half out of it.

“Are you ok?” Ryan asks, frowning. Shane visibly shakes himself, refocusing on the man in front of him, and smiles. It looks a little forced.

“Yeah, just think I had some off milk with my breakfast.” He’s looking at Ryan but he can see Sara’s face out of the corner of his eye. She is not buying it in the slightest. Ryan probably isn’t either. “I’m gonna go to the bathroom, be right back.” Shane will at least admit in the safety of his own head that he’s running away, but he can’t deal with this right now.

Ryan keeps shooting him concerned glances throughout the rest of the afternoon, but Shane manages to divert him fairly easily. Sara has the decency to not press him on it until they’re back home.. Once they’re back in their apartment though, Sara looks like a woman on a mission. “So,” she says, sitting down on the couch, feet folded up underneath her body now that she’s kicked off her shoes.

Shane collapses onto the couch next to, flailing dramatically until he is stretched out on the couch with his head in Sara’s lap. “I want to date Ryan,” he says, voice muffled.

“Thank fuck, I was beginning to think you’d never figure it out,” she says, voice fond, as she places a hand in his hair, gently stroking. He frowns and presses his face more into her thighs. “Hey, it’s ok,” she says, attempting to reassure him. She ruffles his hair some more, before adding, voice small, “I get it. I kinda wanna date him too.”

Shane sits up like a shot, nearly whacking his head on Sara’s chin in the process. “What.” Sara just stares at him. She feels as if she’s already said enough. Shane stares back at her before slowly breaking out into a wide grin. “We should totally date Ryan.”

Sara rolls her eyes fondly at him. “That’s what I’ve been trying to get you to realize.”

“Hey!” protests Shane, “this was a major revelation for me! It’s not like this it’s super easy to figure out you want to date your best friend when you’re already happily dating someone else.”

“Well, it could be easy from now on,” counters Sara. “All you have do is ask him out.”

“What? No! I can’t just ask Ryan out!” Shane says. “If it’s so easy, why don’t you ask him out!”

Sara flaps her hands in exasperation. “No! You ask him out!”

“No, no, no,” Shane says. “You should do it.”

“Shane, he’s _your_ best friend.”

“And?” Shane demands. “If we both want to date him, why does it have to me that asks him out?”

“So we both ask him out?” questions Sara, frowning. Logistically this is going to be slightly more complicated than she had expected. She probably should have thought this part through a bit more. In reality, she hadn’t got further than getting Shane to identify what his own feelings were. Beyond that, she’s flying blind.

“Or…” Shane says, dragging the word out. “Or, we could just, maybe, carry on as we have been for a bit?” Sara tilts her head, questioning. “Well, you said it yourself,” Shane carries on. “We’ve basically been going on dates just the three of us for a while, and we don’t want to spook him, so we could just keep doing that.”

“Riiiiight,” responds Sara, clearly dubious but considering it. “So what you’re saying is, we should woo Ryan properly?”

“Yes!” Shane says, victoriously, “exactly. We’re gonna woo him so hard babe.”

Sara smirks. “Hell yes we are.”

***

Ryan looks up from his computer monitor when, in his periphery, he notices a red mug being placed on his desk. He looks up, expecting to see Shane who sometimes refills his mug when he’s getting more coffee for himself, but instead sees Sara. His brow furrows slightly. Why is Sara bringing him coffee? He takes off his headphones and smiles at her. “Thanks Sara,” he says. “Not to look a gift horse in the mouth or anything, but like, what?”

She smiles down at him. “Shane mentioned you were looking particularly sleep deprived,” she says. “So, I figured, you know,” she adds, shrugging. “Coffee.”

Ryan laughs. “Coffee is always good.”

“Yeah,” she says, shrugging again. Ryan would almost say she’s nervous.

“Are you alright Sara?” he asks, frowning.

“What?” she says, eyes wide. “I’m fine.” Ryan doesn’t exactly buy that. He knows Sara well enough to be able to tell when she’s pretending. She’s always been a mobile person, always shifting and rarely staying still, but right now there’s an anxious edge to it. He can’t pinpoint exactly how he can tell that, but he can.

He swivels his chair round so that he’s facing her properly. “Seriously, what’s up?”

She shrugs yet again. “Just work stress, you know how it is.”

He nods. He does know that feeling all too well - even if it’s not the pressure of having the camera on him, it’s the pressure of thinking of something which will get enough views, the pressure of getting editing done on time. “Anything I can do?” he offers.

“Nah,” she says, shaking her head. “Just got to figure some stuff out in my head.”

“Well, let me know if you want to talk through anything,” he says.

“Thanks Ryan,” she replies, nudging his shoulder in a friendly manner. “I appreciate it.” She visibly shakes herself and smiles at him. “Guess I should get back to it,” she says. “See you later.”

Ryan watches her for a moment as she leaves, heading back to her own desk and her own work and her own deadlines. He frowns slightly. Sara shouldn’t be unhappy.

He should get back to his own work, he needs to send something to the research team by the end of the day and he’s got a lot of work to do before his current document is suitable for anyone other than himself to read. He puts his headphones back and tries to get back into the zone. He takes a sip of his coffee and finds it’s got the exact right amount of sugar in it for him. He smiles, surprised.

He turns to Shane, who has just returned from a taste test or something, and says, “Hey man” to get his attention.

“Yeah?” Shane replies, looking up and putting his headphones around his neck so he can listen properly.

“Is Sara ok?” he asks. “She came over and she seemed pretty stressed.” Shane tilts his chin forward a little, frowning.

Shane opens his mouth to say something but stops before any sound comes out. He starts over, saying, “Yeah, she’s mentioned some stuff.”

Ryan nods, reassured. “Maybe get her some flowers or something after work.”

Shane laughs quietly at him. “Thanks man,” he says, rolling over in his chair so he can bump shoulders with Ryan. “You’re a good friend.”

Ryan can feel himself blush and desperately hopes that it’s not noticeable. He shrugs awkwardly and smiles at Shane, before putting his own headphones back on and getting back to work. He finds it much harder to focus for the rest of the afternoon.

***

“Ready to roll?”

“God yes,” replies Ryan, looking up at Sara. “He’s been muttering about holy dogs for the last twenty minutes.” Sara grins and raises her eyebrows.

“They made this dog a saint because he was such a good doggo!” Shane explains excitedly. “How cool is that? The Church was pissed though because apparently dogs can’t be saints or something.”

“Save it for Ruining History,” Sara chastises, laughing. “You were talking about how you wanted our genuine reactions to stuff just yesterday. It won’t be genuine if we know all about it already.”

Shane sighs. “Ok, fair.” He stands up, gathering together his phone, several cables and his wallet from on top of his desk. “But be prepared for your minds to be fucking blown during our next filming session.”

Ryan picks up his jacket from the back of his chair and moves to stand next to Sara. “Did you guys prebook tickets?” Sara nods. “Awesome, so we just need to load up on popcorn when we get there.”

The tub of popcorn Sara ends up cradling in her lap is obscenely large. She would be concerned that there’s no chance they can finish it all, but she’s seen Shane and Ryan go at it before. If there had been an even larger tub, she would have got that. She knows better than to underestimate the two of them. Once they’re all settled in their seats, Ryan tries to take the tub from her.

“Nope, I am holding on to this thing so I actually get to eat some of it for a change.” Ryan laughs at her, but lets her have continued custody of the the popcorn, so she considers it a success. He does however, grab a full handful of popcorn and immediately stuff it all in her face. You can’t win everything.

Once the trailers are over, the three of them quieten down. She links her left hand with Shane’s, resting their arms on the arm rest between them, and settles in for the movie.The movie is fun, there are explosions, it’s even mildly amusing in parts. At some point during the film, she lets her head rest against Ryan’s shoulder. It isn’t really a conscious decision, she’s tired and it’s considerably more comfortable than trying to rest her head on Shane’s boney shoulders. She glances over at her boyfriend in the dark and smiles. He smiles back.

***

They share a cab back to Shane and Sara’s. “I should probably order an Uber or something,” he says. Shane frowns, not wanting the evening to end just yet.

“You coming up?” Shane asks when they reach his and Sara’s apartment. He’s feeling warm and fuzzy from dinner and the wine they’d had. Ryan frowns and shakes his head.

“Nah, man, I should be getting back.”

Shane looks to Sara for some backup. “You don’t have to be anywhere tomorrow, come up and have another drink,” she says. Ryan looks up at her warm smile and finds he can’t say no. He sighs, rolls his eyes, and gets out of the cab with the other two.

“You want anything?” Shane asks once they reach their apartment, pulling out a beer for himself from the fridge, gesturing with it at Ryan. Ryan nods so Shane grabs another two bottles. “Could you get the bottle opener?” he asks.

Ryan smiles and moves straight away to the cutlery drawer, opening it and getting out a red bottle opener. It’s a novelty one shaped like a devil. Some sort of relative had sent it to Shane for his birthday. Shane had laughed a great deal and brought it in to work to show Ryan. He’d gone on a whole spiel about breaking Ryan’s rule about only encountering demons once a series. Ryan had spent even more time than normal that day rolling his eyes (even if he did kind of find it funny. Particularly the stupid voice Shane had put on to make the bottle opener talk).

Beers in hand, Ryan and Shane leave the kitchen, only to discover Sara lying face down on the couch. Shane prods her in the side with one long finger.

“Go away,” she mumbles, muffled by the cushions. “I am too full. I am now no longer a human being, but rather a container for a ludicrous number of delicious tacos.”

“Is that a bad thing?” Ryan asks, sitting down in the space Sara isn’t lying in. Even when Shane stretches out fully on their couch, there’s still space for someone else to sit down. Sara rolls onto her back and tips her head back to look at Ryan.

“I am willing to accept my new life as a taco container,” Sara says with great solemnity. “So long as all the tacos are that good. We should really listen to our coworkers more often when they say somewhere does good food. That shit was good.” Shane hums in agreement as he picks up his girlfriend’s legs, sits down on the couch, and settles Sara’s legs across his lap.

“So long as it’s not Steven,” Ryan adds with a smirk. “Don’t want him to end up with an even more over-inflated ego.” Sara laughs happily, and he reaches down to pet her hair. She smiles some more. They sit in comfortable silence for a few minutes before Ryan finishes his beer and sighs, putting it down on the table. “I should probably head home,” he says. Both Sara and Shane frown.

“You don’t have to,” Shane tells him.

“Nah, the siren song of my bed is calling me.” Shane purses his lips and almost says something, almost tries to persuade Ryan to stay. But he forces it back. Not yet.

Soon though, he thinks, as he gets up and shows Ryan out. Or at least, he hopes so.

***

There’s a knock on their door, and when Shane goes to answer it, he finds Ryan on the other side laden down with two carrier bags.

“Got an order for Chinese?” he says with a grin. Shane rolls his eyes and ushers him into the apartment. “I got you extra plum sauce,” he informs Shane, before calling out in a louder voice to Sara “and there’s a whole thing of prawn crackers just for you.”

There’s a whoop of joy from the kitchen and Ryan laughs, glad to have it confirmed that getting extra was the right choice. He walks through the apartment to join her in the kitchen, setting his bags down on the worktop. She grins impishly up at him and pecks him on the cheek.

“Thanks Ryan!” she says as she swipes a bag of prawn crackers of the side. Ryan frowns, confused. Sara doesn’t normally kiss him on the cheek. What was that about? Was she really that excited about prawn crackers? Ryan shrugs to himself and decides not to let it bother himself too much. Sara is weird, it’s part of what he likes about her. It’s part of why she and Shane are so good together. This is clearly just an aspect of her weirdness he hasn’t encountered before.

He opens a cupboard and pulled out three plates, setting them on the side and starting to dish up.

“Hey,” said Shane, coming into the kitchen. “You don’t need to do that. Go sit down, I’ve got it.”

“I don’t mind,” Ryan says, carrying on dishing up.

“Nope,” Shane says, popping the p to a ridiculous extent. “Go sit down.” He takes the spoon Ryan was using from his hand and laid it down on a plate. He takes Ryan by the shoulders and forcibly turns him away from the counter. He pecks him on the cheek, before pushing him slightly in the direction of the door and making a shooing noise. Ryan looks back at Shane confusedly, but is met only with a winning smile. Shane nudges him again and Ryan lets the momentum carry him into the living room. It’s easier than trying to figure out what the hell is going on.

***

“How much incest is too much incest do you think?” Shane is perched at the table with his laptop, glasses on, frowning at the screen.

“What?” asks Ryan, looking up, very confused. He and Sara are sitting on the couch, watching a ghost hunting show. Shane had decried it as a load of bullshit and gone to get some work done instead.

“I’m thinking of doing an episode on Ancient Egypt, but there’s a lot of marrying siblings in the stuff I’ve been looking at. Do you reckon that’s too much?”

“You two literally make a show about people being murdered,” Sara interjects. Shane shrugs, conceding the point. “And if you’re not gonna come join the cuddle pile, be quiet.” At that, Ryan realizes just how much his and Sara’s limbs have become intertwined since they sat down. Describing what they’re doing as cuddling wouldn’t be totally inaccurate. His eyes widen fractionally and he starts to move away as carefully as possible. He doesn’t want to offend Sara by flinching away, but they probably shouldn’t be sitting quite this close.

“Nope,” Sara mutters. “Don’t you dare move Bergara,” she says, wrapping her arms around his torso and doing a decent impression of a human limpet. “If Shane thinks he’s too good for ghost shows, then he doesn’t get cuddles.”

Ryan takes a deep breath and tries to relax. Sara doesn’t want him to move, she wants him here, he tells himself. He turns back to look at the tv and stares at it, trying to get lost in the show again. It doesn’t work that well. Sara is warm and he hadn’t realized until he tensed up just how comfortable he had been. He takes another deep breath and attempts to reassure himself that everything is fine. Sara has said it’s fine, Shane clearly doesn’t mind, and even if he did, Sara would ream him out for being a possessive dickhead. It’s all fine. He leans his head to the side, resting it on Sara’s shoulder. She smiles at him, before wrapping the arm not already around his waist around his shoulders, squeezing him lightly. He sighs, giving her a small squeeze back, and decides to ignore the part of his brain yelling at him for now. He’ll worry about that later.

***

Ryan’s slumped on the couch in Shane and Sara’s living room whilst they’re both puttering around in the kitchen, and he thinks he never wants to move again. He’s come to realize recently just how comfy their couch is. And there’s this groove which fits the curve of his back perfectly. Sara’s started referring to it as his spot. He frowns at that. Maybe he shouldn’t have a spot on the couch in his best friend and his girlfriend’s apartment? Is that weird? He’s been spending more and more of his time with Shane and Sara recently, which he hadn’t thought was actually possible beforehand. They already hung out, just the three of them, a lot. He sighs to himself and tries to put it out of his mind. If Shane and Sara didn’t want to hang out with him so much, they would stop inviting him over. Wouldn’t they?

He gets up and heads through to the kitchen, trying to focus on something else. He picks up the kettle and fills it with water, gesturing with it to Shane and Sara, silently asking if they want anything. Shane shakes his head with a small smile, but Sara replies, asking for tea. He puts the kettle on to boil and gets mugs and tea bags out of the cupboard. His frown deepens as he squeezes some honey into Sara’s mug.

“You ok?” asks Shane, noticing his expression. Ryan starts a bit, putting the bottle of honey down a bit more abruptly. He’s not quite sure how to say ‘I just realised I know where everything in your kitchen is’ without it sounding weird. Or even _if_ he should say it.

“Yeah,” replies Ryan, sounding a bit distant. Shane frowns but leaves it be. He claps his hand against Ryan’s shoulder as he leaves the kitchen in lieu of saying anything, in what Ryan assumes is an attempt to be reassuring. Ryan follows him with the tea, handing one of the mugs off to Sara.

“You know,” he says, standing awkwardly in the middle of the room, cradling his tea protectively. “I’ve kind of been spending all my time with you two.” His voice sounds small and uncertain. He tries to put more conviction into his voice as he carries on. “I’m always third wheeling you guys and you probably want your couple time back.”

“What,” says Shane, voice worryingly flat.

“Maybe I should try double dating - we could go on double dates!” Ryan says, trying not to sound desperate.

Sara frowns, putting her mug down on the table. “Do you think we don’t want to spend time with you?”

“No, no!” Ryan protests immediately. “I just. Figured, y’know, you guys probably want to spend some time just together. I don’t want to get in the way.”

“Ryan,” Shane says, voice firm, “trust me when I say you are not getting in the way.”

“You say that _now,”_ Ryan says, “but it’s gonna happen at some point!.”

“It’s really not, Ry,” Shane says, voice soft.

“You’re just saying that because I’m your best friend! I’m not gonna get between you and your girlfriend, man!”

“Nope, not happening,” cuts in Sara. “As said girlfriend I can definitively say that’s not gonna happen.”

“But it might!” protests Ryan. He gestures with his mug of tea, nearly spilling some of it. “You don’t know for certain! What if you guys want to go out for a nice romantic meal and your ol’ pal Ryan Bergara’s there, crushing the mood.” He pauses, mouth a thin line, and adds in a softer voice. “I don’t want that to happen guys.”

At that, Sara stands up and firmly takes Ryan’s mug out of his hands and gently places it on the table. She holds Ryan by the shoulders, looks him straight in the eyes and says “we want you here.”

Ryan gulps. “You’re just saying that to me to make my sad lonely ass feel better.”

Shane sighs, “We’re really not,” as he moves to stand nearer to Ryan. “Trust us, ok?”

“Trust you?” Ryan asks, sounding uncertain.

Sara groans in frustration and Ryan looks at her in confusion. She mutters “fuck it” under her breath, which doesn’t exactly clear things up for him. He frowns, no idea what is going on in her head. She pushes herself up on to her toes to kiss Ryan. She has to stretch to reach his mouth, although probably not as much as she does with Shane. Ryan’s eyes go wide and he doesn’t know how to process this. He’s surprised. Worried definitely, but he doesn’t feel scared for some reason. Almost instinctively his lips purse to kiss her back before his brain gets in the way and he starts to pull back.

“Sara-” he says, voice low. He stops before he can get any further though when the warmth of another body presses up against his back.

“Sara’s probably pissed you didn’t carry on kissing her,” murmurs Shane, voice soft and close to Ryan’s ear. She hums in agreement and looks up at Ryan expectantly.

“But-” Ryan says. He tries to twist his torso to look at Shane properly, but he is well and truly sandwiched between the two of them.

“Alternatively you could kiss Shane,” Sara offers. She’s no longer on her tiptoes but she is standing very close. He can feel her body against his, and the press of Shane’s behind him, and he is doing his very best not to panic. It must show in his face because Sara very carefully, signalling her movements, reaches up a hand to rest on his cheek.

“Hey, it’s ok,” she says softly, trying to reassure him. “If you don’t want to, that’s fine.”

“But,” Shane adds, “if you do want to, this is very much on the table.” She steps back a little, still touching him, but giving him some more space to breathe. He moves, breaking the physical contact with both of them. He needs to be able to see them both for this conversation. His eyes flick between the pair of them, desperately trying to get his thoughts into some semblance of order.

“What exactly is on the table?” he asks. It’s barely more than a whisper, but he’s surprised he managed to summon up the bravery even for that.

“Us,” Sara says. “This.” She shrugs, looking small and unsure. “We were thinking kind of like what we’ve been doing, but with more kissing and stuff?”

Shane shoots a glance at her. “More kissing and stuff? Really, that’s what you’re going with?” He flinches a little when Sara’s hand connects with his arm.

“What, have you got something better?” she asks, eyebrows raised.

“Ok, no,” he admits, sounding a bit sheepish. “But like, maybe we should have scripted this or something in advance so we didn’t end up sounding like idiots.” Sara opens her mouth to retort when Ryan’s laughter cuts her off. Their heads both swivel back to look at him again. He takes a deep breath and sets his shoulders, before taking a deliberate step forward to stand right in front of Sara and Shane, too close to be entirely polite.

“More kissing sounds good,” he says and he grabs hold of the front of Shane’s t-shirt and pulls him down for a kiss. Shane’s eyes go wide in response. He clearly hadn’t expected that to work. He kisses back, uncertain, before relaxing into the rhythm of it. Ryan kisses him fiercely, setting the pace, feeling almost like he’s got something to prove. He pushes himself forward, getting right up in their space, and both of them are right there and it’s fucking amazing. Ryan’s hands move from Shane’s shirt, gliding over his hips and thumbing at the hem, not quite touching skin to skin.

“Go on,” encourages Sara, “you can.” Ryan pulls back from the kiss and makes a noise like he’s been gut punched. Shane smiles down at him dazedly. Sara’s moved now, pressed up against Ryan’s back. She leans up and whispers in his ear. “Not too lightly, he’s very ticklish on his ribs,” she informs him. Ryan smirks up at Shane but doesn’t use this new information against him. Instead he slips both hands under Shane’s t-shirt, large hands cradling Shane’s hips. Shane attempts to pull Ryan closer, wrapping an arm around his waist, but his hand finds Sara instead, still behind Ryan. He grips her shirt and clings to them both.

Ryan pulls back from the kiss, which has been getting progressively heavier, gasping. Sara’s sucking a mark on his neck, just under his ear, and it’s making his knees go weak.

“Do you like that?” Shane asks, voice low and rough. Ryan’s head falls forward to rest on Shane’s shoulder and he heaves a giant, shuddering breath.

Sara pulls away a fraction with one one final bite. “So you don’t forget,” she whispers, low enough that Shane can’t hear. Ryan appreciates it, he wants to remember this very moment, and make sure it doesn’t get twisted up into something else inside his own head.

“I think you should kiss Sara now, we don’t want her to feel left out now do we?” comments Shane. Sara grins broadly up at him at that before taking hold of Ryan’s shoulders and turning him to face her. He goes willingly.

“I think that’s an excellent idea,” she says, pulling Ryan down to her level. His hands fly up to cradle her head, fingers buried in her curls. Ryan is more pliable now, relaxed from kissing Shane, so Sara takes the lead. It’s filthy from the start. She pushes forward against him, eager and impatient, and it feels almost like she’s annoyed he’s kept her waiting. It feels like he’s burning up with want. Her hands creep under his shirt and she gently traces the lines of his abs. He gasps quietly into the kiss, pushing forward against her, feeling her breasts against his chest. Shane is plastered to his back, long framed draped languidly over him. Ryan starts momentarily when more hands glide across his stomach.

“Good to know you work on stuff other than your arms,” Shane mumbles and both Ryan and Sara have to break apart for a moment to laugh. Shane hooks his head over Ryan’s shoulder and presses a kiss first to Ryan’s cheek, and then Sara’s temple. “You guys look amazing, you have no idea,” Shane adds.

Sara grins up at him impishly, and Ryan stares down at her dazedly. He’s happy, but decidedly dazed. “You good man?” Shane asks quietly. Ryan nods enthusiastically. Sara takes this as her cue to pull Shane down for a brief kiss, with Ryan sandwiched in between them. Ryan’s eyes, impossibly, go even wider. It’s difficult to focus on them, he almost goes cross eyed, but he can hear the sounds of their kissing and he’s allowed to look and he can feel both of them, enveloping him in warmth.

As Ryan’s watching them, Shane’s hand drifts lower, his fingers creeping under the waistband of both his jeans and his boxers. There’s not a lot of space, Shane’s long fingers are just capable of grazing the base of Ryan’s dick. “Yeah?” he asks.

“Yeah,” Ryan pants, pulling back from Sara’s mouth for a moment. “But, um, maybe we could take this to somewhere, uh, somewhere we can have less clothes?”

Sara grins massively. “I like the way you think, Bergara,” she says, stepping back further and lacing their fingers together. She gently tugs him along behind her, pulling him towards their bedroom. Once there, Sara pushes Ryan backwards on to the bed, climbing into his lap immediately. Shane follows behind them, an eager noise escaping from his mouth, and perches on the edge of the bed. He swings his legs up onto the bed, bringing them up towards his chest. Ryan notices him watching, enraptured, as Sara pulls him down to lie on the bed, draping herself across him and going in for another kiss. He kisses back but is interrupted by Shane clearing his throat loudly and deliberately.

“Not that I’m complaining, the view from here is excellent, but I thought Ryan wanted there to be fewer clothes,” he says. Ryan sits up immediately, shifting Sara with him to settle in his lap, and in one smooth movement reaches behind his head and pulls off his t-shirt. Shane grins. “Well, the view just got even better.” Sara laughs before looking pointedly at him with her eyebrows raised.

“Fine,” he sighs, “if you insist,” as he takes off his t-shirt. Once he’s done, he looks back at Ryan and Sara, and raises his eyebrows until she sighs and pulls off her shirt as well, throwing it onto the floor and out of the way. “Perfect,” Shane says, leaning forward to kiss her again. As he kisses her, he reaches round and unhooks her bra. She shrugs it off her shoulder and it ends up joining the rest of the clothing on the floor. Sara moans into his mouth, where Ryan’s hand has crept between them, cupping one of Sara’s breasts.

He pulls back, breathless. “Roll her nipple between your fingers,” he says. Ryan follows his advice, eliciting a small gasp from Sara. He keeps moving, massaging her breasts and kissing her neck, as he feels Shane moving away from him, cool air hitting his side where previously there was a warm body. Out of the corner, of his eye, he can see Shane shucks his pants and socks off. He lifts his head from Sara’s neck briefly, and looks up to find Shane staring, wide-eyed at them. Shane gulps and finally removes his boxers as well. Fully naked, he lies back down next to Ryan, head propped up on one hand, and smirks at him. Ryan gulps. Shane is one long expanse of pale skin, which Ryan hadn’t realized was something he was into. He’d always had a bit of a thing for how tall Shane was, how far he had to tilt his head back to look him in the eye when they were standing really close. But seeing all that skin is quite something else. And for once, instead of infuriating him, the smirk just makes the breath catch in his throat.

“Well,” Shane says, “chop chop, I don’t want to be lounging around in my birthday suit all on my lonesome.” Sara laughed happily, bouncing up to pull her jeans off as well. Ryan didn’t move. He sits on their bed and stares at the pair of them, but he makes no attempt to move. Shane’s smirk softens into a smile. He reaches forward and wraps his fingers around Ryan’s wrist. “Too much?” he asks. Ryan shakes his head. Words feel like too much. His brain is full of static and want. He’s overwhelmed by it all and needs a moment to recollect himself. He takes a deep, shuddering breath, and smiles across at Shane.

“Can I watch you guys for a bit?” he asks. He’s quite proud of himself for not letting his voice shake, either from want or nerves.

Shane smiles back at him. “Of course,” he replies. Sara sits back down on the bed, up by the headboard, leaning against it. Her legs are stretched out in front of her, and Shane starts to trace patterns on the skin of her calf. “Whatever you want,” he adds, before pressing a soft kiss to Sara’s ankle.

Ryan stands up awkwardly, takes off his jeans but leaves his boxers on. He’s not quite ready for that just yet. Sara pats the empty space of the bed beside her and looks expectantly at him. “Come on up,” she says, smiling. He sits down next to her and tries to relax again. The nerves have come flooding back and he feels exposed, even though he’s wearing more clothing than the other two. Sara turns to look at him and links her hand with his. It’s good. It’s grounding. A point of contact that makes sense and he’s familiar with. She squeezes gently, reassuring, before turning to back to Shane. “Get your butt up here and stop lounging around.” Shane crawls up the bed on his knees and Ryan can’t help but laugh. He’s all angles and long limbs and frankly looks ridiculous. Shane grins up at him and waggles his eyebrows, causing Ryan to laugh even harder. Shane settles himself on hands and knees over Sara, one of his legs pressed up against Ryan. He leans forward to peck her on the nose and watches her face scrunch up, then leans over to repeat the action on Ryan. Ryan can feel himself flush slightly pink and adopts a small, pleased smile.

Sara tilts her head to the side considering, before saying, “Logistically this isn’t going to work.” Shane frowns at her. “We should switch,” she clarifies. She has a point. Shane visibly assesses the situation and the amount of space on the bed. After a moment, Shane twists his body, shuffling the three of them around, before settling next to Ryan with Sara in his lap.. She grins impishly and picks up Ryan’s hand, he squeezes it, glad for the point of contact. Shane brings his hands up to cradle her head, burying his hands in her curls, and pulls her in for a kiss. Ryan can tell that this is easy and familiar for them, and he could happily get lost just watching them. Sara’s rocking her body gently against Shane, and Shane trails a hand down her front to cup one of her breasts. The kisses are getting more heated now, and Ryan’s almost expecting Shane to slip a finger inside Sara at this point, try and bring her off while they’re kissing. Or at least do _something_ in response to Sara’s impatient noises. But Shane doesn’t. And he gets it, he does, there’s a difference between kissing and that, even if the kissing has been semi-nude, but he doesn’t want them to stop on his account. In fact, he’d rather like them to take things further, so long as they let him stay.

At length, Shane pulls away from Sara, gasping. He turns his head to look at Ryan, and asks “you good man?” Ryan stares at the two of them, open mouthed, one hand shoved in his boxers. He’s breathless, almost like he’s the one who has been kissing for the last couple of minutes, not just watching it.

“Fuck,” he says, “that’s so hot.”

Sara laughs, a bright happy sound. “Glad you’re enjoying the show,” she comments.

“Please don’t, uh, stop on my account,” he replies.

“We could give you a hand,” Shane offers.

“Nah, this is good,” Ryan says. The offer is tempting, and his dick is certainly very interested if the way it twitches is any indication, but he’s enjoying things as they are too much right now. He bites his lip, unsure if he wants to voice what he’s thinking. He takes a shuddering breath as he tightens his grip on his dick ever so slightly, and says, “I want to watch you two get each other off.”

Shane’s grin turns shark-like. “As you wish,” he says, before leaning forward to suck at Sara’s collarbone.

“Was that a fucking Princess Bride reference?” asks Ryan, laughing breathlessly. Shane doesn’t answer, just continues to kiss and nip at Sara’s skin. “You absolute fucker,” Ryan adds. Sara laughs at the pair of them, but it turns into a moan when Shane sucks her right nipple into his mouth.

“If the goal here is to get us both off, I suggest you hurry the fuck up,” Sara says, sounding impatient. “As fun as this is, I’d kind of like an orgasm soon.” Shane chuckles and draws one hand down her front, gently caressing her skin, before reaching down between the two of them and searching for her clit. He finds it and presses solidly against it with two of his fingers. Sara makes a low noise in her throat. “Much better,” she says.

“Are you always this bossy in bed?” Ryan asks. He still can’t decide where to look, eyes flicking between their faces and the points where they’re touching.

“It depends,” answers Shane, “but she does tend to have good ideas.” Sara hums in agreement, rocking down on Shane’s hand. Sara nudges Shane’s hip with her right knee, clearly trying to get him to give her more. Despite not knowing what Sara’s normally like in bed, Ryan can tell she’s not really in the mood for slow and languid at the moment. Shane picks up the unspoken cue and slips one of his fingers inside her. She curves her back, leaning her head forward to rest on Shane’s, as she gasps loudly.. She’s beginning to get breathless, Shane’s fingers rubbing against her and inside her in tandem in a steady motion. Ryan watches, enraptured, as Sara’s breaths get shorter. He watches her pushing down against Shane, chasing her own orgasm, panting against his forehead. She comes with a shudder and she slumps forward more, boneless.

“Fuck,” Ryan says quietly. Sara’s head lolls forward, loose from her orgasm, and she smiles softly. She presses a gentle kiss below Shane’s ear as he withdraws his hand. They trade open mouthed kisses for a moment before breaking apart when Sara’s hand finds her way to Shane’s dick, encircling it with her fingers. She squeezes at the base, making Shane gasp, before dragging her hand up its length.

“Ryan,” she says, voice quiet but determined. “Would you be so kind as to pass the lube? Top drawer.” Ryan’s eyes go glassy and he has to grip his dick harder for a moment so he doesn’t lose it. He nods eventually, does as asked and passes a small tube to Sara, who beams at him and kisses his cheek in thanks. That small action that makes Ryan blush, he can feel his face heating up, and Shane laughs, breathless and desperate. She gets some onto her fingers and immediately starts to spread it over Shane’s dick. Ryan watches Shane shudder from the cold of the lube, but Shane clearly doesn’t mind if the groan he makes is anything to go by. Ryan watches as Sara sets the pace, jerking off Shane steadily. Shane looks up at Ryan, stares straight at him, and pants. Ryan can’t help it, he groans in response, and has to push his own boxers down just enough to free his dick. He takes himself in his hand, not moving but just holding his dick, as he watches Shane and Sara.

Shane bites his lip before saying “you look fucking incredible Ryan.”

Sara turns her head to the side to look as well. “Really fucking hot,” she adds. Ryan gasps, the noise bubbling out of him despite his best efforts. He can see Sara’s hand still moving, jerking Shane off, and he can’t look away. He can’t move. All he can do is stare at the two of them. Sara’s hand is picking up speed and Shane’s eyes unfocus as he comes, a cut off sound dragged from his throat. His head lolls forward and he takes a few huge gulps of breath.

“Not as hot as that,” Ryan says. He hasn’t moved an inch.

“Wanna bet?” Sara says, a smirk evident in her voice. Ryan groans. “Don’t you think Ryan looks amazing Shane? All spread out for us?” Shane lifts his head up from where it’s resting on Sara’s shoulder to look over at Ryan.

“God,” he says, “I didn’t think you could get more gorgeous than when you’re all flushed from working out, but damn was I wrong.” Ryan moans at that, and then again louder when Sara reaches across and wraps her hand around Ryan’s dick as well. She drags her hand up and down at a leisurely pace, the movement smoothed with the remnants of the lube from earlier. His head rolls back and he moves his hand along with hers.

“Do you like us watching you?” Shane asks, eyes fixed on Ryan. “Do you like us telling you how good you look?” He reaches out to touch Ryan’s hip with his fingers, a gentle barely there touch which makes Ryan shiver. “You know what I think you’d look great doing? Holding me up as you fuck me, I bet you could do it, I know those arms aren’t just for show.” With that, and a final pull on his dick from Sara, Ryan comes with a long groan, his chest heaving.

“Fucking gorgeous,” Shane says, leaning over to kiss Ryan, jostling Sara in his lap a little in the process. “So fucking gorgeous.”

***

The next morning, the three of them are in the kitchen, idly drinking coffee and slowly waking up. “Hey Ryan,” Shane said with a small smirk on his lips. “Wanna be my ghoulfriend?”

Ryan groaned and hit him with the back of his hand, right on Shane’s stomach. “I thought I already was, you doofus.”

“What he _means,_ ” Sara says, hopping down from the kitchen counter she had been sitting on and coming over to join the two of them, “is do you want to be our boyfriend?”

“Oh,” Ryan responds, flushing a pale pink. “Well, then. Yes.”

“Awesome,” Shane says, breaking out into a big goofy grin before leaning to kiss Ryan soundly.

 


End file.
